The Increasing Importance of Physical Separation Methods

Physical Separation '17 is building up to a must-attend event if you are involved with physical separation of minerals and coal. Physical separation features in almost every mineral processing circuit, encompassing a broad range of techniques and technologies including hydrocyclones, gravity concentration methods and thickeners, all of which make use of the inherent density difference between two mediums, as well as magnetic separation, and the increasingly important ore sorting technology.

One of the leading practitioners in the gravity concentration field is Sandy Lewis-Gray, Technical Director of Gekko Systems, Australia (see posting of 16 March 2015), one of the conference sponsors, who will present the first keynote at the conference, showing how opportunities for enhanced physical separation performance can now go beyond the common practice of optimising unit operation. Improved options exist for feed preparation ahead of the physical separation stage, enabling higher performance and lower cost outcomes for physical separation flowsheets and technologies.

Sandy and Elizabeth Lewis-Gray of Gekko Systems

Sandy will also co-author a paper with fellow Australian sponsor CRC Ore, who will describe the development of a new generation of comminution devices which can produce much steeper product size distributions than with conventional machines, and combined with precise classification will produce feeds which are well suited to gravity concentration and should also reduce flotation losses at both coarse and fine sizes. The use of such new applications in breakage technologies, combined with mineral liberation analysis to optimise liberation prior to the physical separation stage, provides options for pre-concentration and gangue rejection as well as better separation efficiency. The use of low cost gangue rejection and pre-concentration can be an intermediate step between mining and processing that allows lower cut-off grades in the mine whilst delivering higher grades to the mill, and conference sponsor Steinert Elektromagnetbau will assess the economic impact and viability of upgrading ores by pre- concentration using ore sorting.

Electronic ore sorting is becoming increasingly used, due to the development of rapid sensors in such sorters, but preconcentration prior to grinding is nothing new, and dense medium separation has long been an accepted method for treating coal and for early gangue rejection from certain metallic and non-metallic ores, including diamonds. Prof. Tim Napier-Munn (posting of 12 May 2014), former Director of Australia's JKMRC and a current CEEC Director, has many years of experience with dense medium cyclones, which were first patented in the 1940s, and will present the second keynote lecture at the conference, summarising the history of the process, considering its current status in mineral and coal processing, and suggesting ways in which the process might evolve. 

Tim (right) with fellow CEEC Director Mike Battersby at Comminution '14

So, there is much to look forward to in Falmouth in June. We will be putting the provisional programme together later this month, so it is not too late to submit an abstract for presentation at the conference, which immediately follows Computational Modelling '17 at the same venue.

Current Physical Separation '17 sponsors

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